Person:

Xia, Fan

To the Editor We applaud the evaluation by Guy and colleagues of costs for sunburn-associated visits to US emergency departments. Their analysis was performed using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) primary and secondary billing codes for sunburn (692.71, 692.76, and 692.77) in discharge records from the National Emergency Department Sample database.

Question What is the racial, ethnic, and sex makeup of participants in randomized clinical trials of dermatologic conditions?

Findings In this systematic review of 626 trials conducted in 2010 through 2015, there was a low level of reporting of racial and ethnic composition of trial participants. Those US trials that reported race and ethnicity included a proportional number of women and African Americans compared with the general population, but Hispanic representation was lower than that of the general population of the United States.

Meaning While dermatologic clinical trials conducted in the United States are racially diverse, the field must increase reporting of race and ethnicity and strive for representative study cohorts especially with respect to ethnic diversity.